


A Startling Saga

by Phyre Melody (Mweebles)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:57:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1644641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mweebles/pseuds/Phyre%20Melody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A two part tale about an unlikely romance between a troublemaker and a school Prefect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Startling Devotion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How could something so boring be so fascinating?

He always had great ambition. Perfect Percy, as the twins used to call him. He supposedly wanted to become Minister of Magic.

I don't think I would have met him if I hadn't been friends with the twins. We were in total opposite crowds in school. He was a Prefect, a Head Boy. I had been acknowledged by Filch as the most troublesome girl in my year.

He was two years ahead of me. I never saw him without a book. Whether he was reading it or carrying it in his bag or under his arm, Percy Weasley always had a book. He was always so serious, so boring.

I liked laughter. I liked to joke and play around. I didn't mind getting dirty, as long as it would wash off afterwards. I'd take advantage of the warm weather, hauling all of my books outside for a study session, and then I'd be off exploring the grounds with the twins, more often than not getting chased away from the forest by Hagrid. To make a long story short, my life at Hogwarts was far from boring. I made sure of it.

Still, I couldn't figure out why something so boring could fascinate me. In the winter I would go with Angelina and Alicia to the library to do research on various essays and he would always be there, poring over a thick volume. More often than not I would find myself paused, quill over parchment, just watching him. His black horn-rimmed glasses would glint in the candlelight and the only movement he gave was when he blinked and turned a page. Sometimes he would be writing, the feather of his quill quivering. He'd occasionally pause to think of what to write next, fingering the badge on his robes and looking deep in thought. Then Angelina or Alicia would notice the vacant expression on my face and more often than not step on my foot to bring me out of it. I would hiss in pain, and that would be the only time he would look up, but only to give his signature raised brow.

He was different, though, when I went to visit the twins the summer before our third year. The summer before the badge.

I remember when he arrived at the breakfast table my first morning there, unaware of my arrival. He was clad in his pajamas, hair tousled, looking completely unkempt. When he caught sight of me, his ears turned pink and he uttered a quick greeting, sounding embarrassed. Every morning after that he came to breakfast perfectly groomed, remaining stoic as the twins sneered at him. In the afternoon he had taken to busying himself with various things in the drawing room while the rest of us usually played a game of Quidditch. I soon tired of the sport, though, as I was never good at it, so sometimes I would go back inside and offer to help Mrs. Weasley in making supper. Percy would already be there helping, but would give me a hint of a smile when I offered and Mrs. Weasley would smile and say that they could always use an extra hand. The sun would set after dinner, but sometimes I went out into the garden to think or I would strum on the Muggle guitar that I had. Percy would often join me outside, the two of us just sitting and staring up into the night sky. One time I fell asleep and awoke to him whispering softly that it was time to go inside. It was the only time I had heard him whisper.

Then he was a Prefect, strutting proudly through the halls like he was the next big thing, taking points, telling people off, telling the twins and me off for our latest shenanigans.

Perfect Percy. I couldn't help but roll my eyes when he acted the disciplinarian.

But in the library I always found my eyes straying to him. Usually I had my Chaser friends to prod me out of my stupor, but once I went alone. For all my luck after about ten minutes of my staring, he looked up and spotted me. At first I didn't notice it, really, until he stood up and made his way to my table. My eyes went wide and I actually dropped my quill. He sat down across from me.

"You look clueless, Antawnia, do you need help?" he asked. I nearly laughed. No one except my least favorite teachers called me that. I was known to everyone else as just Tawny. I was going to tell him this, but suddenly I had become a bumbling idiot.

"U-um…N-no, I-I-I'm f-f-f-fine!" I lied. He gave his signature eyebrow raise and looked down at the two sentences I had written so far.

"Oh, really," he said, unbelievingly. Then he picked up the book I had been using as reference and started explaining it all to me, keeping perfect eye contact. Unfortunately, it also meant that he saw when my face turned beet red in his explanation of why love potions were not permitted. He paused and surveyed me, amused. Then he went back to explaining.

I remember seeing him briefly at the World Cup. I stopped to say hello to the twins. He never looked up from making tea.

He came to the Yule Ball at Hogwarts representing his boss Barty Crouch, who had fallen ill. It was a big occasion, everyone dressed their best. I wore blue dress robes that had silver floral designs embroidered into it, fixed my hair a different way and even wore make-up. George was my dance partner. It was a pleasant start to the evening. George and I danced for a while, but occasionally I looked at the champions' table where Percy sat, watching the dancing couples, and for an instant his gaze met mine. I accidentally trod on George's foot.

I found myself sitting out on four dances, as Fred and George had now busied themselves in pestering Ludo Bagman. The Weird Sisters had struck up one of my favorite songs, a slow ballad. I sighed and looked down.

"May I have this dance?" Surprised, I looked up to meet the eyes of Percy Weasley. He held out his hand and gave me a small smile. Still dazed, I took his hand and followed him out to the dance floor. When he put his hand on my waist I thought I might faint. Then we started to move to the music, a slow and steady waltz. I fixed my gaze on a point over his shoulder, but I could feel him looking at me. He was considerably taller than me.

"I must say that I hardly recognized you when you first walked in, Antawnia," he said. "You look stunning." I could feel my face redden and my breath catch.

"Thank you," I said rather shyly.

"It's the truth," he said quietly, as if not wanting to be heard by nearby dancers. "You are stunning." I met his gaze then and saw that he was indeed telling the truth. I smiled, and he did the same.

We danced for the rest of the night. At first we danced at a respectable distance from one another but as the night progressed, I found both my arms draped around his shoulders and he put both hands on my waist. Occasionally we broke the silence between us by talking quietly about what we've done and where we've been since we last seen each other. I felt his thumbs finger the fabric of my dress robes like he used to finger his Prefect badge. It was almost midnight when we stepped from the dance floor. I looked around to see that a lot of people already left, including the twins. Percy offered to walk me to my common room. He offered his arm and I smiled, taking it. It was a pleasant walk; we talked more freely as we passed caroling suits of armor and snoring portraits. Finally we came to the corridor where the portrait of the Fat Lady hung, but he stopped me before we were in sight of the portrait. I looked up at him and met his gaze. He smiled and I couldn't help but notice how wonderfully blue his eyes were. He took my hands in both of his.

"I hope you had a wonderful time tonight," he said, gazing intently at me.

"I enjoyed myself immensely, thank you for dancing with me tonight." My face reddened at his gaze and I averted mine to the floor. A hand cupped my chin gently and moved my head up to meet his gaze.

"I enjoyed dancing with you as well. It was a wonderful way to get to know you, Antawnia." Again with that dreaded name! But…then he was slowly leaning towards me, that blue gaze coming closer.

"Please," I said breathlessly. "Call me Tawny." My eyes strayed to his lips, centimeters away from mine. They fluttered shut as he spoke.

"Alright," he whispered, lips brushing mine. "Tawny..." All train of thought left me as he kissed me deeply.


	2. A Startling Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What it was like through his eyes.

I had never appreciated the color blue before. I used to think that it was the dullest hue on the palette. It was the color of the sky, the ocean, my eyes…

She had told me a long time ago that I had nice eyes. She was so young back then, and naïve. It had never occurred to her that leaning so close to my face could make my heart rate quicken. It had never occurred to me back then what that feeling meant.

The summer after the twins' first year was pure hell, to say the least. They had invited a young female version of them to spend the summer at the Burrow. Mother liked her well enough, but I didn't approve. That unscrupulous, conniving little fox had always found ways to annoy me and always did it at the twins' bidding. She even went so far as to dip my glasses in a potion overnight that caused them to be covered in pink fuzz. Mother had nearly choked on her coffee at the sight of me and Charlie and Ginny snorted into their plates. The girl, Antawnia, tried to make a mad dash for the door, but I pursued her and tackled her just as she made it past the threshold. She squealed and swatted at me, knocking my pink-fuzzed glasses off. She stopped and gazed at me like a curious kitten would and told me that I had nice eyes. I just waved it off as another one of her random thoughts.

Over the next year I rarely met up with Antawnia unless she was with the twins. She had started a rather annoying habit of calling me 'Perce' every chance that she got. If a teacher was looking for me in the hallway, she'd say "Perce Weasley? He's over there." It had gotten so extreme that I found myself looking up when girls would talk about their purses.

She visited again the summer before my fifth year. I had not expected her to arrive so early in the morning, but sure enough, she was sitting there at the table. The twins could sneer all they wanted, but from then on I dressed before coming to breakfast.

She had changed since I had last seen her. She acted a little bit more mature and a lot quieter. Some evenings I would find her sitting in the garden picking at a guitar or just star gazing like I always did. We seldom talked and when we did, it was only a comment on a constellation or to say goodnight. It felt nice to have a quiet evening with her without having to worry about being ambushed in one way or another. I had always thought of her as some hyperactive kitten bent on getting on my last nerve. But then I saw that she could be calm and thoughtful like me.

Two weeks later we got our Hogwarts letters and I was made a Prefect. Mother and Father were so proud, and the twins flashed their stupid evil grins. Only the thought that I now had authority over them at school comforted me. I was also one step closer to becoming the next Minister of Magic. If only I could win an award for special services to the school or secure the Head Boy badge would be my ticket to glory. It turned out that the twins and Antawnia had a lot in store for me that year and I have several memories of taking points and lecturing them on various misdemeanors.

It was during a lecture, actually, when I truly started to realize that there was more to Antawnia than meets the eye. I was often in the library after classes, catching up on reading or doing schoolwork and noticed that Antawnia was often there with her two Chaser friends. They were politely studious in their work except for random odd intervals when Antawnia would make a noise of pain. I would look up temporarily to see if there was a problem and all I could see was her glaring at her friends, who had their noses in their books, seemingly oblivious. She was alone one time, and I had to lecture her on the history of the misuse of potions because she couldn't seem to focus. I noticed that when I got to the part about love potions, her face immediately turned red and she licked her lips nervously. My gaze flickered a little from her eyes to those lips but I covered it by pretending to look amused. I only talked to her occasionally after that incident due to my...ahem...relationship with Penelope Clearwater. It was short-lived, however, and we parted ways after school because I had my job at the Ministry and she had gotten a job at a well-to-do office and was working her way up the business ladder. To be honest, it had started to seem like I was dating the female equivalent of me.

I still saw Antawnia at random intervals. The summer after I left school my family and I went to the Quidditch World Cup. It had been purely business until I saw her approaching through the crowd. I felt my heart beat quicken and it reminded me of that young girl leaning towards me and complimenting my eyes. I busied myself with the tea kettle as she exchanged pleasantries with the twins, aware of my heart pounding in my ears the entire time. It was the first time in a while that I had been too scared to act.

Mr. Crouch, my boss, fell ill during the Christmas holidays and chose me to represent him in the Yule Ball at Hogwarts. I sat inconspicuously at the champion's table watching the students and their dates file into the Great Hall. Antawnia had her arm looped loosely with George's and I was pleasantly surprised to see her wearing blue. I watched her for a little while as they danced and for an instance our eyes met and she stumbled, stepping on George's foot. She looked happy as she danced during the first half, but George abandoned her to pester poor Ludo.

After calming myself down for a few songs, I asked her to dance and she accepted. I found myself talking but not fully registering what was really said, but I knew I had told her that she was beautiful. We danced for the rest of the night and chatted. It turned out that she wanted to be a writer and author all kinds of books. She looked forward to doing research and getting facts straight by experiencing things first hand. I nodded in approval and offered to take her to her common room, as my brother had long forgotten her. She slipped her arm through mine and we made our way through the castle. As she talked, my eyes strayed down to her lips, but she didn't seem to notice. I was mesmerized by her, thought I didn't trust myself to act.

I stopped her in the Fat Lady's corridor and took her hands. All I remember after that was that she said she had a wonderful time and to call her Tawny...I tried the name out on my lips and found that I liked it...but there was more that I wanted to try out on my lips...

...and I did...and found that I liked it.


End file.
